Animal confinement buildings such as hog facilities have an upper slatted floor for the animals and their waste drops through the slats into a pit on a lower floor. The waste material may be removed by a scrapper on a cable moving back and forth the length of the lower floor. Without electronic controls, this system wastes valuable time, because the operator must wait some ten to fifteen minutes for each sweep. If the system is unattended, the scrapper may strike the end of the building and damage the cable system. These systems are not automated because the limit switches would have to be located in the pit area where the acidity of the animal waste is too hostile for electronic switching.
Thus, a cleaning system for animal confinement buildings is needed that is automatic in operation but is free of maintenance problems due to adverse environmental conditions.